1 Nigerian Finance Minister: Mr Steve, you brought the $800 for the copy of your birth certificate, proving you are the King's twin?
2 Terry: It's a scam! Steve, don't give them any money!
2 Steve: I mailed a cheque ahead. Didn't you get it?
3 Nigerian Finance Minister: Ah, no... It must have got lost...
3 Steve: No worries. Here's my Platinum Amex.
4 Nigerian Finance Minister: That will do nicely...
4 Terry: If only he dealt with sharks half as well as he does crocs...

2012-10-03 Rerun commentary: A brief note of positivity about a financial institution (shocking, I know!):

I've been an American Express cardholder for something like 15 years now. I've had occasions to interact with their customer service department several times over those years, and each time I've been dealt with pleasantly, courteously, and efficiently. Whether it's been to give notice that I'm travelling overseas and therefore not to cancel my card if it suddenly gets a bunch of charges on it from Ecuador in the next three weeks; or to report a strange charge on my card and have the charge reversed, my card cancelled, and a new card issued; or to report a fraudulent additional charge by a retailer and have action taken against them - I've always gotten on to a real person who could handle my call without having to navigate a twisty maze of phone menu options or being put on hold interminably, and they've always been able to help me directly without transferring me through a dozen other people.

Maybe this sort of service used to be normal, but you wouldn't know it these days dealing with banks.

Anyway, American Express ranks in my personal top ten list of "best customer service" for any company that I have ever dealt with.

Which all kind of lessens today's comic, since I'm sure Steve would have no trouble recouping any lost funds on his Amex card... well if any were to go missing, of course. Which there's absolutely no reason to believe would happen at this point.